


Interlude

by lochTenderness (theseourbodies)



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Canon - Anime, Gen, Last Game - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 08:03:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20422631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theseourbodies/pseuds/lochTenderness
Summary: Taiga doesn’t realize how obvious he’s being until Kise sidles up to him and says, "He's not going to kill him, you know."He doesn’t jump, but it’s a near thing. "Which one are you talking about—Kuroko or Akashi?""Either of them," Kise says through a grin before swanning off again to go poke at other people’s personal thoughts.Taiga doesn't hold grudges; that doesn't mean the thought of Kuroko alone with Akashi doesn't make him feel nervous, sometimes. Set during the training montage of Last Game.





	Interlude

**Author's Note:**

> I'm very proud of myself- every member of the team has at least one (1) line!! 
> 
> Just a short one-shot about Kagami doing his best to take care of his <strike>favorite person</strike> <strike>best friend</strike> shadow.
> 
> Now with a companion piece! [science (right down to it)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24425959), in which Satsuki is about as subtle as Kagami but also infinitely more self aware.

Mid-break, Akashi calls Kuroko out of the gym; with the barest hesitation, Kuroko follows after him, and it’s only natural that Taiga watches him go. He tries to figure out the weird feeling in the pit of his stomach, fiddling nervously with a spare ball he hadn’t yet set down. 

Taiga doesn’t realize how obvious he’s being until Kise sidles up to him and says, "He's not going to kill him, you know."

He doesn’t jump, but it’s a near thing. "Which one are you talking about—Kuroko or Akashi?"

"Either of them," Kise says through a grin before swanning off again to go poke at other people’s personal thoughts. 

Taiga glares after him, but it's only a quick look. His heart's not in it-- he can't seem to tear his eyes away from the double doors of the gym as he fidgets with the ball in his hands. He's-- he and Kuroko are ok with Kuroko's old teammates now; hell, most of the time, Kagami can relate to them better than he can to anyone else that he's played with, better even than Tatsuya. He's not much for holding grudges, and he doesn't think Kuroko is either (childhood-friend-related revenge quests aside,) so he doesn't know why it is that he gets so nervous when they're around Kuroko, sometimes. 

Maybe it's because Akashi's even more scary now than he was when he was... absent? replaced? Whatever, fact is, the other (?) Akashi had once tried to kill Kagami with a pair of scissors and Kagami still feels more nervous around Akashi as he is now. 

("Akashi-kun is recovered," is the only way that Kuroko can seem to explain it to him, and the rest of the team are closed-lipped about it, for once in their chatty little lives; Kagami can't even get Midorima annoyed enough to talk about it, which Kagami thinks is pretty telling.) 

It's not going to keep them all from playing well together; they're only a few days in, and Kagami is already amazed at how everyone is clicking together, like they haven't been playing for separate teams with wildly different structures and core strategies for the last year. It just means that sometimes, Kagami is more aware of Akashi than he is of the others - even when (or maybe especially when) Akashi is out of sight after calling Kuroko out to talk something through.

So, yeah, he's a little concerned about Kuroko; Taiga can't shake the feeling that there's something that's still dangerous about Kuroko's former captain. 

"You're worse than a dog, idiot," is Aomine's helpful input. "Sorry your master had to go off without you, but in the meantime stop pissing on the carpet in despair and come run these drills with me before I pass out from boredom. At least I can focus on kicking your ass instead of bullshit footwork."

Riko, across the gym in close conference with her dad, Momoi, and Momoi's clipboards, plural, lifts her head, clears her throat and says sweetly, "What was that about footwork? You're having trouble, Aomine-kun? Might need to double up then."

It, incredibly, shuts Aomine up with barely another groan and stops the retort about to come spewing out of Taiga's mouth; Taiga puts his head down and focuses on the drills, and only gives in to the temptation to shove Aomine over one time when they get too close to one another. Aomine just grins obnoxiously at him and, without missing a beat, swirls around Taiga's flank to break the tension in Taiga's knees with a bump from his own. Taiga goes down with a yelp and comes up growling-- five minutes later he's forgotten almost all about his weird lingering worry in favor of an impromptu game of one-on-one that grows into two-on-three as Kise, unable to resist the pull of the game, hauls a bitching Midorima into the fray. Taiga, hot-blooded and not afraid to fight dirty, gets Murasakibara in on his side with some of his best schoolyard bullshit and a very sincere promise to buy snacks, later on. 

He's so deep in it, blood singing from finally getting to scrimmage and not just run agility and strategy exercises, he almost misses Kuroko coming back. Unluckily for Taiga, Aomine notices him first. 

"Arf arf, dog boy. I told you they’d be fine," he says, jerking his chin over to where Akashi is talking to Kuroko in the open doorway. Kagami unrepentantly uses every ounce of his slight weight advantage to catch Aomine in a headlock and waits for Kuroko to meet his eyes as Aomine snarls and grumbles under his arm. At the ruckus, the rest of the team notices him noticing, and it’s like watching little kids getting picked up at daycare—everyone has something to say all at once. 

“Akashicchi, were you skipping with Kurokocchi?! Take me with you next time--!”

“Quiet, idiot! Akashi, Kuroko, will you please put an end to this nonsense? We need to practice, not satisfy these mindless basketball morons—”

“Aw, can it, Midorima. Where’s your little point guard, he’s at least good for a laugh—”

“I didn’t see you trying too hard to put a stop to anything with that last basket, asshole--!”

"Aka-chi~in, come take my place, 'kay? I'm so hungry I'm going to die, probably." 

"Probably die? Well, we can't have that," Akashi says smoothly. He gestures towards where Kagetora and his daughter are trading a dry erase marker back and forth as they scribble out plays and notes on the dry erase board that lives in one corner of the gym. "Eat something quickly - it looks like our trainers have settled on what to do next." 

His voice reminds Taiga of the sound a kitchen knife makes in a sharpener, and all of a sudden all that nervous energy comes rushing back in. Aomine wriggles free and trots off with a smirk for Taiga. Taiga grits his teeth against the urge to tackle him again and looks for Kuroko instead, who has predicatably ghosted over to the bench while Taiga was distracted. They haven't had much time alone; they haven't needed it, with the furious pace of practices and practice matches that have made up the last week, which is a good thing considering how unwilling everyone generally is to leave Kuroko (or each other) alone now that they're all on a team together again. Kagami takes advantage of the little free space to grab his towel and a drink from his own bottle as Kuroko sips from his. 

"Alright?" Kagami gruffly asks the wall in front of them instead of looking directly at Kuroko. 

He glances to the side just in time to catch Kuroko looking at him - Taiga thinks he managed to surprise him, but Taiga can't think how. With his worry? Taiga's no Kiyoshi Teppei, but he's done his best to look out for his team; he'd thought the little idiot had figured out by now that that didn't stop once they were off the court. 

"...Yes," Kuroko says at length; he doesn't say anything about Taiga worrying about him, and if he has an opinion about it, Taiga can't pick it up from his expression. "I only needed to work something out with Akashi-kun. Akashi-kun and I… haven’t played together in a very long time." 

That's all that Kuroko gives him, and Taiga can tell that that's going to be all that Taiga might ever get from him on the matter. Still, it's enough—every word was weighted with years of history. Taiga gets it, of course he does, and abruptly he feels stupid for worrying at all, let alone being obvious enough that the others realized it. 

"However… That does not mean that I am not glad that I have Kagami-kun looking out for me," Kuroko says abruptly, looking Taiga dead in the eye before turning away to pace back over to where Midorima has just irritably called for them both across the gym. Taiga watches him go, stunned stupid for a moment until Coach and Midorima both call for him again in eerie, deeply annoyed tandem. 

Taiga shakes himself and follows Kuroko back across the court, touched somewhere deep at his friend's honesty – it's not the first time he’s been struck dumb when Kuroko opens his mouth and raw truth comes out; he hopes he never has to see the last time, that he can keep inspiring that honesty in Kuroko, who is reserved on a good day and absolutely unreadable on the bad. Taiga swallows a grin and let’s the flow of their practice come over him again, suddenly at ease again.

**Author's Note:**

> im slowly working my way through the manga and really loving the subtle differences in Kagami's character. i waa inspired and wanted to try a different characterization than the Kagami i usually write. i hope you enjoyed~


End file.
